At first sight, this private contract-carriage with a bold and flashy colour combination can pass off as just another private transporter with a fascination for, perhaps, not-so-famous Hollywood stars. Except, the people painted on this bus in Kerala are quite famous – among fans of the adult entertainment industry.

The bus is decorated to the T with current and former porn stars.

Adult stars like Ava Addams, Johnny Sins, Keiran Lee, Jordi, and former porn stars like Mia Khalifa and Sunny Leone occupy pride of place on the exteriors of this Kerala private bus, run by Chikkoos Tours and Travels. And the bus has created quite a stir on social media ever since a Twitter user uploaded the photos of the bus on his account.

So who owns the bus, and why did they choose to go with porn stars on their vehicle?

Chikkoos Tours and Travel is run by Ambadi Travel that operates out of Thiruvananthapuram, and the owner, Sheril, tells TNM that this particular bus is meant exclusively for college students.

"It’s a special edition bus,” Sheril tells TNM. “We offer college tour packages to Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Mysuru among other places," he says.

It’s not just the exterior of the bus – even the interior is jazzed up to cater to a young clientele. Besides the neon-embedded lighting and music system, the bus is also retrofitted with a disco-light-chandelier. "Knowing my passengers, they would like to have fun and entertainment en-route. The music and neon lighting interior is designed keeping these ideas in mind," Sheril says.

Officially endorsed by these adult entertainment celebrities or not, the popularity of the bus on the social media is such that even the verified handle of porn star Keiran Lee couldn't resist from retweeting the image.

This particular bus is dedicated to porn stars, but Sheril's company seems to have a finger on the pulse of pop culture. They also have buses with themes like Marvel’s Avengers and the Pirates of the Caribbean franchise.

And Sheril says, the popularity of this particular bus on social media only goes on to prove that adult stars, too, are part of popular culture.

“If one can put pictures of film stars, politicians and sports personalities on buses, why not carry images of these adult film actors, who are known to people as well,” the 30-year-old Thiruvananthapuram native says.

“It’s not just teenagers – others know them as well. I have seen many people giving a second glance to the bus, however if you ask them, they will pretend like they don’t know them,” Sheril laughs.

The artwork was created by Thrissur based caricature artist Rithesh, in the month of June. "I am known for celebrity caricature using airbrush. Earlier, a few other bus operators have approached me for artwork of film-stars and celebrities, but this one was a unique project," he says.